We at Home School Legal Defense Association grieved for the children in the reports of abuse out of Riverside County. No child should ever be treated the way these children were.

As the nation’s largest homeschool advocacy organization, we love homeschooling and believe it is an excellent educational choice for hundreds of thousands of children in California. So we are also saddened when this choice — a choice made by diverse families from every conceivable demographic — is inaccurately and unfairly associated with such despicable acts. We understand the desire to do something, but we urge great care be taken to avoid stigmatizing California’s vibrant and growing homeschooling community.

As the saying goes, bad facts make bad law. A bill recently introduced in response to the Riverside County case, Assembly Bill 2756, is a prime example. The bill would compel homeschooling families to admit the fire marshal into their homes to conduct an annual inspection — but it would not apply to all homes where children live.

That’s right: The authors of the bill appear to think that homeschoolers present a greater risk of fire than other families. While it can be proven that homeschoolers have been on a hot streak in spelling and geography bees, we know of no rational connection between homeschooling and house fires.

Where laws are concerned, that phrase — rational connection — is all important. It is the minimum standard a statute must meet to be constitutional. This bill doesn’t get there by a long way.

Ask yourself: How does clearing the breakfast dishes and breaking out the math books create a higher risk of fire?

Additionally, where entry into the home is concerned, the standard is much higher than a merely rational one. The Fourth Amendment protects the home — more than any other place — from unreasonable searches (inspections) by government agents. The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly said that warrantless entries into the home are forbidden (except in true emergencies) out of “the overriding respect for the sanctity of the home that has been embedded in our traditions since the origins of the Republic.”

Can there be any doubt that the proposed bill is a stalking horse to get inside homes — not for fire safety, but to check up on kids?

The San Francisco-based United States Court of Appeals has recognized that child abuse investigations into a family’s private life are not without cost. And the systematic investigation of entire minority groups may harm many more children than are helped.

The court has recognized that protecting children from abuse is a compelling state interest. But it has also said, “Parents have an exceedingly strong interest in directing the upbringing of their children, as well as protecting both themselves and their children from the embarrassment and social stigmatization attached to child abuse investigations.”

In fact, the court continued, “of the millions of investigations conducted by state and local agencies in 2007, only about a quarter concluded that the children were indeed victims of abuse. This discrepancy creates the risk that in the name of saving children from the harm that their parents and guardians are thought to pose, states ultimately cause more harm to many more children than they ever help.”

And according to the same court, “The government’s interest in the welfare of children embraces not only protecting children from physical abuse, but also protecting children’s interest in the privacy and dignity of their homes and in the lawfully exercised authority of their parents.”

Using the subterfuge of fire safety to ferret out child abuse will needlessly stigmatize tens of thousands of thriving homeschooled children and will diminish confidence in their parents’ authority and sense of security in their own homes.

Don’t let the heat of the moment influence Sacramento into passing a bad law.

James R. Mason is vice president and director of litigation for Home School Legal DefenseAssociation. He is an attorney and litigator who has helped HSLDA win a number of landmark cases establishing and protecting homeschool freedom.